Proxmox in z87 Mainboard and i7 4700

[Nicolai]

I currently have the chance to get a good deal on an i7-4770 als Well as a Gigabyte Z87M-D3H and 16gb of RAM distributed into 4 4gb Sticks each 1600, for 180€.
I was Just Wondering, whether Proxmox is able to utalize These Ressources for good use. The Ark Page for the i7-4770 says It Supports VT-d, but I heard that it is a chipset Feature, and the Ark Page for the z87 says it's not supported.
So would I be better Off Just buying a standalone i7 and a Q87 Chipset MB, since those Seem to Support VT-d ?
Or am I in the whole Trail all together ?
I would Like to build a Homelab for a few VMS including samba as DC, WebDAV, some cloud service, a firewall, and at least one test System.

 

[Vladimir Bulgaru]

Hey, Nicolai!

I think you're tackling the whole idea from the wrong end. It's a bad approach to fit the hypervisor into a hardware box. It'll save you a lot of headache if you will plan the hardware based on Proxmox and what you are planning to do with it.

Answering your question, Proxmox VMs are based on Linux KVM and require the CPUs to be virtualisation capable. If the motherboard does not provide the support you need - it simply won't work.

Another aspect i'd touch upon is the RAM. Your CPU does not support ECC RAM. ECC RAM allows for the system to run more stable and prevents the OS from hanging and data from being corrupted. You will also need quite some storage if running several VMs, which means that you would need some kind of controller to combine several disks and the motherboard may not be able to handle it.

I'd suggest a different approach. You can have a look at Dell R610/R620/R710/R720 or HP DL360P/DL380P servers. They currently retail very cheaply and would provide you with a way more reliable platform to work with. Just saying...

 

[Nicolai]

Hey, Nicolai!

I think you're tackling the whole idea from the wrong end. It's a bad approach to fit the hypervisor into a hardware box. It'll save you a lot of headache if you will plan the hardware based on Proxmox and what you are planning to do with it.

Answering your question, Proxmox VMs are based on Linux KVM and require the CPUs to be virtualisation capable. If the motherboard does not provide the support you need - it simply won't work.

Another aspect i'd touch upon is the RAM. Your CPU does not support ECC RAM. ECC RAM allows for the system to run more stable and prevents the OS from hanging and data from being corrupted. You will also need quite some storage if running several VMs, which means that you would need some kind of controller to combine several disks and the motherboard may not be able to handle it.

I'd suggest a different approach. You can have a look at Dell R610/R620/R710/R720 or HP DL360P/DL380P servers. They currently retail very cheaply and would provide you with a way more reliable platform to work with. Just saying...

Hey Vladimir!
Do you know if the z87 chipset does support VT-d ? On Intel's Ark site, they say it doesn't, but the xen wiki says it works ?
Can't post a Link because new member.
About the part with the used Server, I thought about that but I don't have a Rack and no Server room either, so it should be a tower server with moderate loudness.

 

[Vladimir Bulgaru]

I've googled the MB and it seems that many people on Hackintosh forums are looking into disabling VT-d, so i guess it does support it. I'm not really sure if it's a MB thing but i might be wrong; you can check this video on enabling virtualisation on GB MB.

As for the tower servers, Dell T610 are dirt cheap, so you may get a better deal. The CPU would be 3 generations behind, but having a decend RAID controller and ECC RAM would be a huge improvement. Or get a T630 for the same generation CPUs - should be doable getting it for 500-600$.